Our Basic Schedule

I don't like to get into horribly regimented "schedules". It just doesn't work for us. I have found that the whole, "It's time to start school." ideas just turned my son off. It was if I had brought public school to our home. This may work great for some families but just not for us.

What I tried to do on paper looked something like what's below. However, our days never FIT the time slots so

Literary Homeschool -- Our Basic Schedule

Basic Days -

7:00 1st grader - Let out dogs/Play

4 yo's - Play & put away clean silverware/set table for breakfast

7:30 Get Dressed - All three kids & mom

1st grader - Feed Pets

8:00 Breakfast/Bible Study

8:30 Make Bed/Pick up clothes/Brush Teeth

9:00 Poetry and/or

Ruth Beechick's Language & Thinking and/or

"Mind Benders" or some type of learning Puzzle or maze.

9:15 Math - This is the only subject where I use a "set" curriculum. We are currently using Abeka Arithmetic 1 for my first grader and K5 for my 4 year olds. Please click here for more information on this.

9:45 Finish Math Page/ Get Snack

10:00 Read Aloud w/ Mom/ Narration/ Finish Snack

10:30 phonics/LA/spelling

11:00 Handwriting/CW

11:30 Ind. Reading-Ch-Narration

12:00 Lunch/kitchen cln up

12:45 Science or Social

1:15 Hands on SS/Nature Study/Outside Exploring

2:00 Social Studies or Science/Nature Study

2:30 Art/Music/Special

3:00 (Depending on Day) - Tae Kwon Do class (son), Gymnastics (daughters), Library, Park, Playdates, Skateboarding Park, Grocery shopping, and/or Allowance Shopping

4:30 chores/play

I find that we are in the "middle of the road". I ensure that I have at least the following week's goals/schedule jotted down on some basic planning forms (see our free forms section). However with some more flexible rules to make it work for us:

1- I do not list the headings on my planner as Monday, Tuesday, etc. I normally use Day 1, Day 2, etc. This alows flexibility for us. If one of our nature walks in the morning or afternoon ends up taking over our day - so be it! I am loving and enjoying my children in God's beautiful world. My children are not just learning about nature or science but of peace, love, patience. We enjoy the family time, they ALL love the art of nature drawings and the excitement when we come up across a few baby robins in a nest or an exciting type of water fowl at the pond that we hadn't seen before.

This way - if we miss most of "Day 2" we can pick it up on Day 3 without having to erase columns and weeks of plans because it's listed under the "wrong" day.